BC/AD vs BCE/CE (Written Conventions of English)

BC/AD vs BCE/CE (Written Conventions of English)

There was a time when the dating system of the western world was comfortable with using

• BC = Before Christ, and
• AD = Anno Domini, "[in the] year of the Lord," meaning after the birth of Jesus.

As the world has become increasingly inclusive, however, it has been realized that not all people--even in western countries, let alone in Asia, Africa, and so on--accept the idea that the birth of Jesus had such an epoch-changing effect.

In fact the use of "Common Era" for the so-called AD epoch has been around for three centuries or so. But using

• BCE = Before the Common Era, and
• CE = Common Era ("common" here means "belonging equally to an entire community")

only became widespread around the start of the 21st century.

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